


And That's How the Nomad Caught on Fire

by servantofclio



Series: Zoe Ryder [7]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 10:13:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13233564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/servantofclio/pseuds/servantofclio
Summary: Gil, wrench in hand, stares slack-jawed at the Nomad. Ryder had thought they’d put the fires out, but the way smoke is still pouring from the undercarriage says they missed a spot.“What the bloody hell happened?” Gil finally demands.Instead of answering, Ryder crosses her arms and looks pointedly at her companions.





	And That's How the Nomad Caught on Fire

**Author's Note:**

> I stayed in the Nomad too long listening to Liam and Vetra argue and this happened.

Gil, wrench in hand, stares slack-jawed at the Nomad. Ryder had thought they’d put the fires out, but the way smoke is still pouring from the undercarriage says they missed a spot.

“What the bloody hell happened?” Gil finally demands.

Instead of answering, Ryder crosses her arms and looks pointedly at her companions.

“Look, man,” Liam says hastily, “I’ll help you fix it, I promise –”

“I will get you whatever parts you need,” Vetra adds, just as hastily.

Gil laughs like a man who needs more coffee before dealing with this shit. “That’s great, but it doesn’t answer my question.”

Ryder never knows, with this particular pair of squadmates, whether she’s going to get the Liam and Vetra who chat amiably enough about their gear, or the ones who go for each other’s weak spots like assassins. She should probably stop pairing them up altogether, but she’d thought things had gotten better after Liam more or less apologized for hassling Vetra about bringing her sister to Andromeda. Today they’d started out okay, until an apparently innocuous conversation about the best way to kill kett turned into a referendum on whether Liam is an asshole showoff (kind of, a little bit), and also another warning to Liam to never talk to Sid again (unenforceable, as Liam pointed out to Vetra, which just made her madder).

They were sufficiently distracting that Ryder wheeled around in her seat to tell them to knock it off, just as the Nomad barrelled into one of Kadara’s many outlaw-infested valleys. So she missed the first few pings of gunfire against the vehicle’s shields.

Until all the alarms started going off.

“Guys! GUYS!” Ryder yelped.

“Shit, outlaws!” Liam yelped back.

“I know!” she shouted, scrambling for the exit hatch.

“… and that’s how the Nomad caught on fire,” she finishes.

So maybe she left out some of the bit where she should have been paying more attention. Liam and Vetra, looking thoroughly embarrassed and hangdog for six feet and nearly seven feet respectively, aren’t about to correct her.  

“Sorry,” Vetra offers, mandibles tight against her jaw.

“Totally,” Liam adds.

Gil gives them both the evil eye.

“Like I said,” Vetra adds, “I’ll find you whatever you need.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Ryder says. “Both of you are going to _help_ Gil fix this, and you are going to _cooperate with each other_ , and whatever issues you have with each other, this is _not going to happen again_.”

They both mutter, “Yes, Pathfinder,” and slump like little kids.

“Good going, Mom,” Gil says in an undertone.

“Shut up,” Ryder whispers back, and goes off to take a shower and wash the smell of smoke out of her hair.


End file.
